SNAP SnappedSNAP cierra de golpe

SNAP Snapped

City closes food stamp assistance center

‎By Gregg McQueen

The site has been closed.

Go east.‎

Anti-poverty groups and community members are voicing concern that the city has closed one uptown center providing food stamp assistance – while directing clients across town to another site in East Harlem.

On Fri., June 28, the Human Resources Administration (HRA) stopped offering full assistance for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at its St. Nicholas Center.

Located at 132 West 125th Street, the center served about 90 individuals per day from Northern Manhattan zip codes, conducting application and re-certification interviews for SNAP benefits, handling documents and resolving benefit issues.

According to HRA, the caseload of the St. Nicholas Center will be re-allocated to the East End SNAP Center located at 2322 Third Avenue in East Harlem.

The two sites are less than a mile apart.

But Helen Strom, Benefits Unit Supervisor at the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center, said closing the center will prove detrimental to community members reliant on essential social services.

Department of Social Services Commissioner (DSS) Steven Banks.

“We think that in-person SNAP centers continue to be an important cornerstone within at-risk neighborhoods,” she said, noting that the St. Nicholas center served a caseload of more than 25,000 households per year from the west side of Manhattan, including Washington Heights.

For certain SNAP clients, traveling crosstown to the East End Center could be a hardship, Strom said.

“Asking someone who’s elderly, mobility-impaired or with small children to get across 125th Street on overcrowded buses isn’t easy,” she said. “The outcome could be that they lose access.”

“This location was really convenient,” said one SNAP client outside the St. Nicholas center during its final day. “It won’t be as easy to get to another site.”

The move is part of a reorganization due to a decrease in foot traffic at SNAP centers citywide since 2014, according to HRA. This is attributed to clients having the ability to manage their benefits through a mobile app, submit applications online, and conduct eligibility interviews via phone.

“As we reorganize services in Harlem, we’re phasing out components of this underutilized center, reflecting how New Yorkers are accessing their benefits: 87 percent are choosing to access benefits through the ACCESS HRA app, and 97 percent are conducting SNAP interviews over the phone,” said HRA spokesperson Isaac McGinn. “We are working with local clients to ensure continued access to services via the app or the closest center, which is only a few blocks away.”

The St. Nicholas location will continue to provide Cash Assistance services and self-service SNAP help, with HRA staff available to help SNAP clients use a computer for benefits issues, HRA said.

Elon, a Harlem resident who has used the St. Nicholas location for several years, said she was unaware that the site would no longer provide full-service SNAP help.

“Nobody even told me, and I was in there today,” she said. “It would have been nice if they did a better job letting people know.”

In recent weeks, The Urban Justice Center spearheaded an effort to keep the center from closing. The group organized dozens of letters from social service groups, calling on HRA to halt the decision.

An online petition gained more than 350 signatures.

“Closing a major center in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of color is a big mistake,” remarked Kiana Davis, an advocate with Urban Justice Center. She said the closure is “part of a pattern of reduced services” for those requiring food assistance in the city, noting that HRA has closed three SNAP centers since September 2018.

“The community has had no say in any of this,” Davis said. “These are conversations that should have happened long ago if the city was considering closing offices down.”

In response to the letter-writing campaign organized by Urban Justice Center, Department of Social Services Commissioner (DSS) Steven Banks wrote to advocacy groups stressing that changes to the SNAP centers were driven by a 50 percent reduction in foot traffic since clients gained the ability to receive benefits without an in-person visit.

“At the core of our reforms is a series of initiatives to make it possible to receive our services without ever having to come into an office and wait for help in the same way that New Yorkers who are seeking other government or private services and assistance can,” Banks wrote.

“It does not make sense to have two half empty SNAP offices, so we are consolidating our services in them, thereby freeing up space to expand other client services. We can assure you that the changes that we are making at these two locations will not result in a lack of service for our clients and will not affect language access,” added Banks.

Still, in the letter, Banks admitted that the city’s “communication should have been clearer” that the St. Nicholas site would still exist for other self-service SNAP procedures and Cash Assistance help.

This infographic purports to show how phone assistance is not helping residents.Photo: Safety Net Project

Recently, the city also ended Saturday hours at the Waverly SNAP Center on 14th Street in Manhattan, and reduced weekday hours in other SNAP offices.

“The city says it wants to push these services online, but not everyone has a computer or even Internet access,” Strom said.

Advocates have not given up hope that the city will change course on the St. Nicholas SNAP center.

“We would hope that they reverse their decision,” stated Strom. “HRA still has a presence in that building. It’s not too late to continue providing full services there.”

ImagiNATIONS by Andrea Arroyo│ ImagiNACIONES por Andrea Arroyo

NYC Department for the Aging

Afro Latin Jazz Alliance

Hailing from Costa Rica, Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, who lived as an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. for four years, is thriving in New York City. As a queer, partially blind artist, Christopher empowers his peers and our communities alike, just by being himself. #IHW2020pic.twitter.com/J1XWv3pUOC

Acacia Network

National Domestic Violence Hotline

National Domestic Violence Hotline

Missing Vulnerable Adult Alert.

A Brief History of CUNY

CUNY

What You Need to Know About COVID-19

Lo que necesita saber sobre COVID-19

At 168 – Columbia Presbyterian Med Ctr stop we’re hitting all the surfaces people touch. Pres Utano: If MTA officials and the authority’s chief hatchet man are still thinking about laying off transit workers, they need to have their heads examined." #coronavirus@CentralLaborNYCpic.twitter.com/DPFlLcVUXH